Seafood salad is a great meal for a hot summer day and Carol Selva Rajah has the perfect recipe for you.
Carol Selva Rajah has just created her 11th cookbook, Heavenly Fragrance (Periplus Editions), which features fantastic, spicy and deeply delicious recipes using the aromatic spices, seasonings, herbs and fruits from the Asian region.
Her recipes are tinged with inspirations from Malaysia, Cambodian, South Asian, Thai and Vietnamese cooking. By the way, those of you headed to Sydney, Australia might want to take in Carol's award-winning Asian food tours of the Cambramatta community.
If you are into seafood, take a gander at her Singapore Chili Crab recipe - bursting with flavours!
FRESH SEAFOOD SALAD WITH SESAME LIME DRESSING
Ingredients for basic salad
- 6 fresh medium squids (10 oz/300 g total)
- 10 oz (300 g) fresh sashimi grade fish fillets (salmon, tuna or white fish)
- 10 oz (300 g) fresh medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails left on
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) fresh lime juice
- 1 cup (100 g) snow peas, trimmed an dsliced in half lengthwide
- 10 asparagus spears, tough end trimmed
- 1 stalk celery, thinly sliced diagonally
- 1 red bell pepper, cut in half, cored, deseeded and sliced
- 1/2 cup (20 g) dried woodear or cloud ear fungus, soaked in hot water until soft, hard bits trimmed, drained well
- 1 tsp grated lime rind
Sesame Lime Dressing
- 3/4 cup (200 ml) Chicken Stock (see recipe below)
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 tbsp superfine sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp oyster or mushroom sauce
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp fresh lime juice
- 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
Dipping Sauce
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lime juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp bottled sweet chili sauce
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin shreds
METHOD
- Prepare the Chicken Stock.
- Rinse the squids, pull the heads and innards form the tubelike bodies. Discard the heads but retain the tentacles, and remove the beak from the mouth. Clean the body tubes, removing and discarding the long, thin cartilage inside. Half each tube lengthwide and rinse the inside well. Using a sharp knife, score the flesh on the inside by making diagonal criss-cross slits across the surface, then slice into bite-sized pieces.
- Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Poach the squid pieces in the boiling water for about 1 minutes, then remove and immediately plunge into a bowl of iced water to stp the cooking process. Set aside.
- Place the fish fillets and shrimp in a bowl and pour the lime juice over them. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, turning over once. Remove from the refrigerator and drain off the lime juice. Slice th efish fillets into bite-sized strips. Place all the seafood in a platter and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Blanch the snowpeas and asparagus separately for about 1 minute each. Remove from the heat and immediately plunge into iced water to stop the cooking process. Drain well and refrigerate together with other vegetables, until ready to serve.
- To prepare the Sesame Lime Dressing, combine all the ingredients until the sugar is dissolved and divide into several tiny dipping bowls.
- To serve, arrange the seafood and vegetables on a large platter and scatter the grated lime rind over the fish pieces. Place the platter with the bowl of the Sesame Lime Dressing in the centre of the dining table and tiny bowls of the Dipping Sauce around them.
- Provide each guest with a pair of chopsticks and a small side plaate. Begin by pouring the Dressing over the Salad, then invite your guests to toss the ingredients all at once using their chopsticks for health and prosperity.
CHICKEN STOCK
Ingredients
- 8 cups (2 litres) water
- 2 lbs (1 kg) chicken bones or 1/2 fresh chicken
- 1 small onion or 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 celery, sliced
- 6 black peppercorns, freshly cracked
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 inch (3 cm) fresh giner, peeled and bruised
- 2 stalks lemongrass, thick part only, outer layers discarded, inner part bruised
Method: Bring all the ingredients to a rolling boil for about 5 minutes in a stockpot,. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, skimming off the residue and fat that float to the surface. Increase the heat and return to a boil for 10 minutes then remove from the heat. Strain through a fine sieve and discard the solids. Allow the clear stock to cool completely before refrigerating or freezing.
Makes 6 cups.
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